Diplomatic Relations

Lord Grocott: To ask Her Majesty's Government with which member states of the United Nations the United Kingdom does not have diplomatic relations.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The UK does not have diplomatic relations with Bhutan or Somalia.
	Bilateral relations with Bhutan are friendly. We conduct business with Bhutan through our high commission in New Delhi and via the Bhutanese honorary consul, who is based in the UK and spends half the year in Bhutan.
	Somalia does not have diplomatic representation in the UK and the security situation in Somalia does not allow us to have a diplomatic mission in Mogadishu. However, we acknowledge the Transitional Federal Government as the current Government in power in Somalia and deal with them on that basis.

Diplomatic Relations

Lord Grocott: To ask Her Majesty's Government which are the member states of the United Nations where the United Kingdom's diplomatic representative is not resident in the state concerned.

Lord Davies of Oldham: The table below shows those countries where the UK has a non-resident ambassador or high commissioner, and where those ambassadors or high commissioners are resident.
	
		
			 Country Ambassador/High Commissioner resident in: 
			 Andorra Madrid 
			 Antigua and Barbuda Bridgetown 
			 Bahamas Kingston 
			 Benin Abuja 
			 Burkina Faso Accra 
			 Burundi Kigali 
			 Cape Verde Dakar 
			 Central African Republic Yaounde 
			 Chad Yaounde 
			 Comoros Port Louis 
			 Congo (Republic of) Kinshasa 
			 Côte D'Ivoire Accra 
			 Djibouti Addis Ababa 
			 Dominica Bridgetown 
			 East Timor Jakarta 
			 El Salvador Guatemala City 
			 Equatorial Guinea Abuja 
			 Gabon Yaounde 
			 Grenada Bridgetown 
			 Guinea Bissau Dakar 
			 Haiti Santo Domingo 
			 Honduras Guatemala City 
			 Kiribati Suva 
			 Kyrgyzstan Astana 
			 Laos Bangkok 
			 Lesotho Pretoria 
			 Liberia Freetown 
			 Liechtenstein Berne 
			 Madagascar Port Louis 
			 Maldives Colombo 
			 Mali Dakar 
			 Marshall Islands Manila 
			 Mauritania Rabat 
			 Micronesia Manila 
			 Monaco Paris 
			 Nauru Suva 
			 Nicaragua San Jose 
			 Niger Accra 
			 Palau Manila 
			 Paraguay Buenos Aires 
			 Samoa Wellington 
			 San Marino Rome 
			 Sao Tome and Principe Luanda 
			 St Kitts and Nevis Bridgetown 
			 St Lucia Bridgetown (but we have a resident commissioner in Castries) 
			 St Vincent and the Grenadines Bridgetown 
			 Surinam Georgetown 
			 Swaziland Pretoria 
			 Togo Accra 
			 Tonga Suva 
			 Tuvalu Suva 
			 Vanuatu Suva

Internet: Security

Baroness Neville-Jones: To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord West of Spithead on 7 May (WA 143), why the Internet Watch Foundation's list enables internet service providers to block child sexual abuse images if they are hosted abroad but does not enable them to block websites hosted abroad promoting violent extremism and terrorism.

Lord West of Spithead: The IWF acts as a reporting centre for images of child sexual abuse, criminally obscene images and websites containing incitement to racial hatred. Of these, only child sexual abuse images are illegal to view, and therefore the IWF list comprises only those sites.

Northern Ireland: Bill of Rights

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will advise the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which has just called for the enactment without delay of a justiciable Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland inclusive of economic, social and cultural rights, that the enactment of such a proposal was not part of the Belfast agreement.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: All the concluding observations of the committee will be addressed in the UK's sixthreport under the covenant, which is due in 2014.

Northern Ireland: Bill of Rights

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Royall of Blaisdon on 19 May (WA 302), what are the special circumstances which will require extra human rights in Northern Ireland and not in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: The Government will consult on a potential Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland in due course. The question of whether there is a need for additional rights to reflect the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland will be fully explored during consultation.

Political Organisations

Lord Tebbit: To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the criteria by which it is decided that a political organisation or persons within a political organisation or their actions are subversive of the national interest of the United Kingdom.
	To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria are taken into account in deciding that the security services should monitor the internal workings or participate in the proceedings of political organisations regarded as working against the national interest of the United Kingdom.

Lord West of Spithead: Section 1 of the Security Service Act 1989, as amended, sets out the functions of the Security Service. These include the protection of national security from "actions intended to overthrow or undermine parliamentary democracy by political, industrial or violent means".

Prisons: Officers

The Earl of Listowel: To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they are considering using prison officers as learning advocates.

Lord Bach: The prison officer role is central to the reducing reoffending agenda, one aspect of which is the education, training and employment pathway. Prison officers are prepared for their role by means of a one-year foundation training programme incorporating an eight-week prison officer entry level training course and a level 3 national vocational qualification in custodial care (CCNVQ). Since September 2007, all new officers must complete the NVQ in their first year. Module GJ2 of the CCNVQ—"support individuals in custody to take part in purposeful activities"—is optional but to date 1,169 new prison officers have either obtained or are currently working towards this unit. This NVQ module requires prison officers to demonstrate that they are encouraging prisoners to take part in purposeful activities which include educational, recreational and work activities.
	There are no plans as yet to introduce a central policy on prison officers acting as learning advocates.

Railways: European Services

Lord Rosser: To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions have taken place with rail operators in other European Union countries on expanding destinations for European services using High Speed 1.

Lord Adonis: The Government are keen to encourage competition on High Speed 1 from 2010 and to expand the number of European destinations available by rail from the UK. Discussions have been held with rail operators in a number of other European Union countries on providing such services. These discussions are ongoing. It will be for the future operator of High Speed 1 to market the railway and to agree terms of access with international train operators.

Railways: European Services

Lord Rosser: To ask Her Majesty's Government who will be responsible for regulating applications by open access operators for providing additional rail services from the United Kingdom to Europe following the sale of High Speed 1 and Eurostar United Kingdom; and what steps will be taken to encourage additional or alternative rail services through the Channel Tunnel.

Lord Adonis: Potential open-access operators that wish to utilise High Speed 1 will negotiate access rights with the holder of the concession to operate the railway. Before 1 October 2009, any such negotiations would be supervised by the Department for Transport; from that date, they would be supervised by the Office of Rail Regulation. The High Speed 1 concession will incentivise the concessionaire to encourage new operators to offer international services through the Channel Tunnel.

Railways: Eurostar

Lord Rosser: To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the relative value for money obtainable by the Government for different options for disposing of Eurostar United Kingdom, including (a) sale in its existing form; and (b) reorganisation without a new shareholder.

Lord Adonis: The Government are not engaged in a sale of Eurostar UK Ltd. The Government continue to examine ways to best further the development of Eurostar in conjunction with our international partners. Our objectives in doing so are to develop services and the offering to passengers and to secure the best long-term value of the UK's share in Eurostar in the interests of taxpayer. The value of any options in relation to the future of Eurostar will be benchmarked against the projected opportunities, risks and commercial prospects of maintaining the Government's interest in Eurostar UK Ltd in its present form.

UN: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government what number and percentage of the submissions to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights at its 42nd session in Geneva from 4 to 22 May were related to Northern Ireland.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: This information is detailed on the committee's website at www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies.cescr.cescrs42.htm.

UN: Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Lord Laird: To ask Her Majesty's Government why no Northern Ireland Office representatives were present in Geneva in May when the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights considered the combined fourth to fifth periodic report of the United Kingdom on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: The Ministry of Justice led a delegation of officials from several government departments and devolved Administrations. Most of the issues raised in relation to Northern Ireland in the combined fourth and fifth periodic report fell within the remit of the Northern Ireland Executive. Given the limited role for the Northern Ireland Office in relation to this examination, it was not considered to be an effective use of public money to send Northern Ireland Office officials to the examination.